Longshoreman looking for a solution

Staten Island Advance/Marjorie HackJames Stratis put in 35 years as a longshoreman in Brooklyn, but heâÂÂs been based at the New York Container Terminal (NYCT) in Mariners Harbor for the past 12 years. He moved to Bulls Head in 1973 âÂÂto give my children a better life,âÂÂ he explained. âÂÂStaten Island was more countrified.

BULLS HEAD --Delete that image from “On the Waterfront” of strapping Marlon Brando, a simple-minded pawn named Terry, used by Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (played by Rod Steiger) to advance his less than honest interests.

Working on the real waterfront is something very different and it runs in James Stratis‘ blood. He hardly fits the legendary stereotype of an initially corrupted dock hand and his higher-ups who shake people down and worse.

“I’m a third-generation longshoreman,” he said proudly, noting that he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father who worked out of the 23rd Street Terminal in Brooklyn.

“Whatever corruption there was was not at the working man’s level. It was above us, the guys making the big, big money,” he said.

Stratis started in Brooklyn, too, where he was born, in what he called Red Hook, though he allowed that his old neighborhood is now referred to as Carroll Gardens so that the brownstones there can fetch higher prices.

Stratis put in 35 years as a longshoreman in that borough, but he’s been based at the New York Container Terminal (NYCT) in Mariners Harbor for the past 12 years. He moved to Bulls Head in 1973 “to give my children a better life,” he explained. “Staten Island was more countrified.”

Though he admits it’s “getting a little congested now,” Stratis isn’t going anywhere. In fact, he’s actually made a second home for himself — at the NYCT. He loves working there.

“It has great benefits, great pay and there’s a lot of camaraderie” among the 500 or so people employed at the terminal, he explained.

Right now, he serves as an extra labor boss, which means he runs the warehouse at the terminal. A second warehouse is to be added soon to the 187-acre property, he said.

Under the direction of president and CEO James Devine, said Stratis, the NYCT is thriving. “He’s turned this place into a world-class terminal,” he said. Devine came to the terminal in his current position when it reopened in October 2001. It had been closed for 10 years, starting in 1986.

There are just two problems, said Stratis: First, the average Staten Islander has almost no idea of what goes on at the terminal and how important it is to their everyday lives. Second, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, by voting to raise tolls at the Outerbridge Crossing, Goethals Bridge and Bayonne Bridge, will succeed in pricing the terminal — one of the jewels in its crown — out of the market.

The toll increases are tough enough for the average commuter who travels by car. Trucks — especially the real big rigs that cart goods to and from the NYCT — are a whole other issue. NOT SITTING AROUND

If the toll increases for these vehicles are implemented, as currently planned, a typical two-axle truck hauling a three-axle container will pay $50 per crossing with E-ZPass come September, up from $40 today, and $90 per crossing by 2015. One crossing for a non-E-ZPass trucker will rise to $165 by that time.

“I hope there’s a deal [in the works],” said Stratis. “It’s [NYCT] a great economic engine for Staten Island.”

He’s right. The NYCT generates a payroll of $52 million a year.

It’s not just the money generated by the terminal’s operations that’s a boon to Staten Island, said Stratis, but the spin-off money that gets spread around to some 90 to 100 independent vendors on Staten Island — everyone from deli and gas station owners to banks and grocery stores. That amounts to about $3.2 million a year, according to Devine.

As Stratis points out, about 75 percent of the employees at NYCT live on Staten Island and spend their money here; another 100 live in Brooklyn and the other boroughs.

NYCT employees are not sitting around simply twiddling their thumbs. They’re off-loading everything from the food that Staten Islanders serve at dinner to the shoes they slip on their feet. If you purchase a screen door at Home Depot, it likely made its way to the store through the terminal; if you need a tire or a new battery for your vehicle, it probably came on a container from China — and yes, was offloaded at NYCT.

The terminal is repeatedly honored for its efficiency and production, but although it has plenty of plans for growth and expansion, two companies have already — or are about to — pull the plug on using the port, because it costs too much to cross the bridge to truck the goods.

“It’s gonna hurt everybody, but hurt us the worst,” said Stratis, whose son, James, 37, also works at the terminal as a longshoreman hiring agent.

HUNTER & FISHERMAN

In his off-hours, Stratis is an avid hunter and fisherman. He goes after everything from deer and bear to smaller wildlife in the Catskill Mountains. He eats what he kills and catches.

Right now, though, he’s hunting for solutions to the plight generated by the Port Authority. He’s convinced the terminal is a prize — and one worth going after. Let’s hope he — and all the others who work there, including Devine — can succeed in hitting their mark and saving this site. If they do, notes Stratis, it’s a win-win for every Staten Islander.

Devine took to the stage in the refrigerator warehouse at an employee thank-you lunch last Thursday.

He was cautiously optimistic and had plenty of good news to report, but he didn’t shy away from what he described as “a fatal flaw.”